Zoox, Amazon’s autonomous vehicle technology subsidiary has announced plans to begin testing its technologies in Miami, FL and Austin, TX. The company said that, in both cities, a fleet of Toyota Highlanders equipped with these technologies will be tested in challenging driving and traffic conditions.
The cities together mark Zoox’s fourth and fifth public testing locations. After conducting a brief mapping mission for Miami and Austin, Zoox will deploy its test fleet, equipped with safety drivers, in small areas near the business and entertainment districts of the two cities. Through this initial deployment, the company is aiming to gather valuable insights and feedback to aid its growth.
Before deploying its test vehicles, Zoox identified specific pre-planned routes that allowed them to encounter challenging driving features and scenarios, while also testing randomly selected point-to-point routes within a defined geofence. In Austin, for example, Zoox’s fleet will come across horizontal traffic lights, hanging traffic lights, railway crossings, and thunderstorms. In Miami, the fleet will encounter traffic lights suspended diagonally across intersections. The conditions in both cities will ultimately provide Zoox’s fleet with insights that will help its operations across all the territories it operates in moving forward.
The Amazon subsidiary will largely focus on testing its technologies in Austin and Miami – with no immediate plans to deploy its purpose-built robotaxi or offer public rides in either city. At the same time, while it is targeting Las Vegas, NV and San Francisco, CA for its first commercial deployments, it is already exploring further cities for future commercial offerings.
Throughout its AV testing in the two cities, Zoox will work closely with local officials, regulators, and residents to ensure the safe integration of its technology into Austin and Miami as well as transparency and collaboration throughout this period.
